Movie review: Rhythm of the rain (PG13)

119 minutes/Opens on Oct 11

Rating: 1 and a half out of 5

Mandopop lyricist Vincent Fang would probably never name one of his songs Rhythm Of The Dramatically Convenient Rain, for its literalness would be abhorrent to his lyrical sensibility.

Yet in his directorial debut, he has made an incoherent film which literally features the rain - all the time.

The bland romance between rocker Allen (Alan Ko) and sensitive Yujie (Ginnie Han) is a washout and filled with pointless hurdles. It is a relationship so contrived, it is hard for the audience to feel invested in it even when Allen's former bandmate Sharon (Vivian Hsu) and roommate Yile (Shi Xialong) complicate the picture.

Emotions, let alone lyricism, are also missing in the segment where Yile accompanies Yujie to Singapore for an important operation - it plays like a promo clip for medical tourism here.

The competition combining rock music, calligraphy and wushu, which Allen and his band take part in, only serves to give cross-disciplinary collaborations a bad name. Perhaps the mash-up might have worked better as lyrics in a song.

The movie ends with a music video that flashes back to Yujie's first love (who cares?) and a revelation which is meant to feel poignant but merely feels like a pointless cheap trick.

Singer-actor Kuo's puppydog earnestness is the sole saving grace here.

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